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Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the second largest passenger car manufacturer and the largest passenger car exporter in the country, commemorated its decade old journey in India by organizing a unique transcontinental Delhi to Paris drive that was flagged off from the national capital on 10th September 2008 by Olympic Gold Medallist Abhinav Bindra. After passing through the historic city of Agra and Gwalior the drive proceeded to Bhopal from where i10 was driven down to Hyderabad. Finally, i10 arrived at the Hyundai manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur near Chennai on the 15th , which was the culminating point after covering approximately 2,300 km long journey in India. With this the Indian leg comes to an end and the European leg begins.

From Chennai the i10 will be airlifted to Turkey. Its ultimate destination would be Paris where the car will be showcased at the Paris Motor Show 2008 beginning on 2 October, 2008.

The drive would be for more than a fortnight & would traverse the international borders of 10 countries including Turkey, Italy, Greece, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany to culminate in Paris in France. The event is being co-sponsored by Hyundai partners Mobis, Shell, Bridgestone, Mando and HSBC.

On this occasion H. S. Lheem, Managing Director, HMIL said “It is a moment of immense pride and happiness for all of us at Hyundai as we complete 10 successful years of operations in India. This extra-ordinary drive of i10 Kappa from Delhi to Paris is an acknowledgement of our technological prowess and the advanced quality of products and services. Hyundai has played a remarkable role in changing the dynamics of the automobile industry in India and with this unique drive we want to create automobile history.”

The i10 Kappa was launched recently in July and the drive is an attempt to prove the performance and reliability of the engine and the i10. The i10 Kappa on this epic journey will be driven by a team of well known automobile journalist who will take turns driving it across to Paris from Delhi. The i10 till its launch has sold over 100,000 units and exported to Europe and other countries. In India it became the first car to win all the ‘Car of the Year’ awards and is one of the largest selling compacts. The i10 Kappa is available in both automatic and manual transmission options.

About HMIL

Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company, South Korea and is the second largest and the fastest growing car manufacturer in India. HMIL presently markets 30 variants of passenger cars across segments. The Santro in the B segment, the Getz Prime and the i10 in the B+ segment, the Accent and the Verna in the C segment, the Sonata Embera in the E segment and the Tucson in the SUV segment.

Hyundai Motor India, continuing its tradition of being the fastest growing passenger car manufacturer, registering total sales of 327,160 vehicles in the calendar year (CY) 2007, an increase of 9.2 percent over CY 2006. In the domestic market it clocked a growth of 7.6 percent as compared to 2006 with 200,412 units, while overseas sales grew by 11.8 percent, with exports of 126,748 units.

HMIL’s fully integrated state-of-the-art manufacturing plant near Chennai boasts of the most advanced production, quality and testing capabilities in the country. In continuation of its commitment to provide the Indian customer with global technology, HMIL has set up its second plant, which produces an additional 300,000 units per annum, raising HMIL’s total production capacity to 600,000 units per annum.

HMIL is investing to expand capacity in line with its positioning as HMC’s global export hub for compact cars. Apart from expansion of production capacity, HMIL plans to expand its dealer network, which will be increased from 230 to 300 this year.

The year 2007 has been a significant year for Hyundai Motor India. It achieved a significant milestone by rolling out the fastest 400,000th export car. Hyundai exports to over 90 countries globally; even as it plans to continue its thrust in existing export markets, it is gearing up to step up its foray into new markets. The year just ended also saw Hyundai Motor India attaining other milestones with the launch of the i10 and yet another path-breaking record in its young journey by rolling out the fastest 1,500,000th car.

Hyundai’s new model i10 which made its global debut here in India in October, 2007 made a clean sweep of all the ‘Car of the Year 2008’ awards from the leading automotive magazines and TV channels like BS Motoring, CNBC-TV18 AutoCar, NDTV Profit Car & Bike India and Overdrive magazine. The i10 is also the choice of the discerning automotive media of the country as they conferred the prestigious ‘Indian Car of the Year’ (ICOTY) award to the i10 as well. The i10 bagged these awards on the basis of excellence in build quality, handling, driver comfort, safety and ride quality.

The Santro and the Accent also received the ‘TNS Voice of the Customer – 2008’ award for the Premium Compact Car (Santro) and the Entry Mid size Car (Accent). In March 2008 it achieved yet another milestone by rolling out the fastest 500,000th export car.

Last year, the Hyundai Verna bagged some of the most prestigious awards starting with the title of “Car of the Year 2007” by India`s leading automotive publication – Overdrive, the “Best Mid-size Car of the Year” award by the NDTV Profit Car & Bike India Awards 2007, the “Best Value for Money Car” by the CNBC Autocar Auto awards and ‘Performance Car of the Year 2007’ from Business Standard Motoring.

Hyundai cars have been a favorite at all awards ceremonies and have always been winning awards. Our models like Sonata Embera won the ‘Executive Car of The Year 2006’ award from Business Standard Motoring Magazine and NDTV Profit Car & Bike India declared the Tucson as the ‘SUV of The Year 2006’. Not only this, HMIL has also been awarded the benchmark ISO 14001 certification for its sustainable environment management practices.